OUT OF LUCK: The Tale of Tsutana Kichirou
by Anima Sola 86
Summary: Somewhere in the land between fire, water, earth and wind, in a country unknown, there was a boy, who tried to find his way in life. He went to hell and back, only to wake up under the eyes of an angel. Will he finally find his happy ending? OCxOC/BL
1. Prologue: Then

**OUT OF LUCK**

**The tale of Tsutana Kichirou**

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><p><strong>Prologue: Then<strong>

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><p>The scenery was beautiful. The cherry trees were in blossom, thousands of sakura petals were floating through the air, as if caught in a tiny whirlwind of warm air. There weren't many things that he would call beautiful. But spring time certainly was one of them. It was the time of birth, of renewal. Everything came back to life. Everything started over new.<p>

He had done that several times in his life. Over and over. Like a petal he had been carried away by the wind, with no destination, no purpose, no home. He had travelled the countries, seen so many things, met so many people. And always, every time again, the wind would carry him away again. Somewhere. Unknown.

Tsutana Kichirou was sixteen years old when the wind decided to let go of him. Unfortunately for him, he had been floating over a cliff when that had happened. _Sometimes, the wind was a bitch._

And he had fallen, without a chance to hold onto anything.

The cherry trees vanished, the blue sky turned black, clouds were covering the stars and the moon, everything fell into darkness. Just like that. It had been no special day, no special time, he had not done anything too much out of the ordinary, when it had happened.

When the trap fell down onto him.

In that moment, he had recalled his life as a sakura petal. Floating around, being carried away, running, always running away from everything, never settling down. He had remembered that even cherry trees were to lose their blossoms at one point or the other. Summer would come and fall and then winter and the cherry tree would remain. And in spring, it would carry new blossoms.

And this time, he would not be one of them. Of that he was sure when the darkness fell.

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><p><em><strong>AN:** Welcome to my first fan fiction that is not really a fan fiction._

_It's set in the NARUTO-universe, but does not feature any actual character from the anime/manga. There will only be original characters!_

_There will also be chapters/scenes that are NOT SUITABLE FOR MINORS! This story is full of mature content. You have been warned! (I will always warn at the beginning of a new chapter whether or not the following contains mature content!) This story will also eventually develop into a Yaoi-story. You know, boys love? If that is not your thing you may leave now. Or you may stay and give it a try. It's up to you!_

_Well, for now: Hope you enjoyed the prologue! The first chapter will be up later today, new chapters will be up once a week._

_**NEXT: Trauma.** (Remember the warning about violence? It's coming!)_


	2. Chapter 1: Trauma

**OUT OF LUCK**

**The tale of Tsutana Kichirou**

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><p><em><strong>WARNING: <strong>_

_**This chapter is NOT SUITABLE for minors. **_

_**Beware of mature content!**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Trauma<strong>

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><p>He couldn't see a thing. Not that it was dark around him, he just couldn't see. Feeling the rough fabric of some stinking piece of clothing over his eyes, he'd take a wild guess and say that he was blindfolded. He couldn't move also. He tried. It didn't work. His wrists were tied together behind his back, while his feet lay, held by what felt like a thick rope, in a weird angle beneath his body. He felt awfully tired and exhausted. Every inch of his body was hurting.<p>

How did he get here? What had happened to him?

Suddenly there were footsteps. Loud and booming. Dangerous. He held his breath in anticipation. Something hard hit his thigh. He swallowed the urge to wince. He had to stay strong. _Show no emotions_. All his life that had been his mantra and all his life it had helped him survive. Yet somehow he had the feeling that it won't save him this time. This time was different. _This time… he was screwed._

He could feel the presence of another person next to him. He could hear them breathe. When there was a loud scraping on the floor, he couldn't help it. He flinched.

"Oi, so you are awake, huh, kid?" A booming, male voice echoed through the room. It didn't sound nice. Not nice at all. It was deep and dangerous and had the edge of a smirk in it. He could tell. _But that wasn't helping._ Neither was the fact that he had never heard that voice before.

That was not a good thing.

"Do you know why you're here, kid?" the voice asked him.

Was he supposed to answer that? Something hard hit his legs again. It hurt. He tried to ignore it. When he didn't answer after another moment, he felt two hands on his waist that lightly picked him up. He felt his legs unfold beneath him as he was lifted into the air. And he felt another rib break when he was thrown through the room against a wall and landed hard on his back. Pain rushed through him and he couldn't help but moan.

He tasted blood.

"What a lovely voice you have… use it some more, okay?" Something heavy stomped onto his chest and pushed him down. The pain intensified. "Come on, don't be shy, use your voice!"

He couldn't breathe. The weight upon his chest seemed to make his lungs burst and break even more ribs. Yet he didn't make another sound.

"So you're stubborn, huh? Well, I heard that much about you, kid" the voice boomed over him. "You know I was really lucky to catch you. You weren't easy to find. Quite the talent, huh?"

When the weight upon his chest was being lifted, he asked quietly, yet trying to sound as tough as possible – it didn't sound tough at all when he spoke: "Who are you? And what do you want from me?" He sounded like a little child. _And hated himself for that._

"Oh, he can speak!" Something grabbed his jaw. Fingers. "Well, kid, what do you think I'll do to you? I think you pretty well know why you're here and what I want from you. Come on, you can't be that stupid. Unless it's true that pretty boys aren't that smart."

His jaw was being squeezed and he had to swallow the urge to growl.

"And you know, if I told you my name, I would have to kill you." An icy laughter rang in his ears. "But you know what? That's exactly what I intend to do. So I might as well tell you everything you want to know before I chop you to pieces, kid."

_Chop me to pieces?_ That strange man intended to kill him? Now he knew for sure that he was screwed. Big time. The hand gripping his chin let go and pushed his head against the hard floor. A wave of nausea rushed through him. His head began to spin. _Oh why am I here?_

He flinched badly when he suddenly felt a new weight on him. Not on his chest, but on his hip and legs. As if someone had sat down right on top of him. He actually held his breath in shock. _Show no emotions! Show no emotions!_ He felt fingers on his face. Then a sharp pain when the blindfold was being ripped off.

He blinked.

The first thing he saw was not the brightly lit room, nor the stone walls or the blood they were covered in. The first thing he saw were the icy blue eyes of the man, who was sitting astride his body's middle region. _Show no emotion… show no…_ He couldn't help it. The way the man was staring at him caused him goosebumps. And a feeling inside his stomach that made everything worse.

Vulnerability.

The man smirked down at him. "Is that fear I see in those pretty eyes of yours?"

He tried his best to regain his composure. The fact that the weird black-haired man placed his hands on his chest and leaned closer to him wasn't really helping. He swallowed dryly.

"So, let me introduce myself now" the man then said in that low voice of his that made everything worse. "My name is Choukai Misashi, but you can also call me The Chopper."

_The Chopper?_ That didn't sound good. And as if the name alone wasn't bad enough, he suddenly saw a sharp knife in one of the man's hands. While still looking at him with these damn cold eyes, the man named the Chopper lowered the blade. He couldn't watch. His heart was racing. _Now was the perfect moment to panic, wasn't it?_ It was that moment that he realized that even though he hadn't had the best of lives, he still didn't want to die yet.

And so he pressed his eyes shut.

The ripping of fabric rang in his ears. But only when he felt cold fingers upon his skin, he jerked his eyes open again. _WHAT THE…?_ His jaw dropped in disgust when he realized that the man with the knife had cut open his shirt. _Seriously?_ _What kind of sicko was this guy? And now he was running his damn hands over his bare chest! This was… sick…_

"You're excited, huh, kid?" the other man said with a smirk while pressing his palm upon his chest as if feeling for his heartbeat. "That's a nice sound… I'd say enjoy it until you can."

Suddenly panic rose. It made him shiver from deep within. It wasn't even a numbness, it was a cold that spread through his entire body. The realization that this was the end hit him with full force. Despair made him choke on his own breath. _I don't want to die… I don't want to die like this…_

And to make things worse, he watched helplessly how the man lifted the knife once again and…

He felt it before he saw it. The cold blade that ran almost smoothly through his skin, through his cells, through his muscles, deep into him. At first it was cold, then heat spread and heat turned into an excruciating burning that made his vision blur. He coughed in pain when the knife was being pulled out of his stomach again.

"You'll die today, kid" he heard the man whisper somewhere close to his ear. "And I'll be your murderer. You will bleed for what you have done."

_What he has done?_ There was a short moment where he recalled everything he had ever done wrong in his life. There was a lot, but nothing, absolutely nothing justified his death. It seemed that he had just ran out of luck entirely, meeting the wrong person at the wrong time at the wrong place. Sometimes, everything came together like that. Sometimes, life could be a real bitch.

And there he was, still conscious enough to feel the burning pain in his stomach, while a tiny voice in the back of his head was yelling: _Show no emotion! Don't give up!_ Yet another voice, much more prominent than the other, slyly whispered to him: _Forget it. There's no escaping this crazy guy. He'll torture you to death. You know that! So just give in…_

And as he was considering which voice to follow, he felt himself being lifted up. The strain on his stomach made the wound hurt even more. He felt blood running down his abdomen. Opening his eyes groggily, he saw how he was pushed towards a table. As his hands were bound behind his back he had no chance to prevent tumbling against the wooden edge. His vision went black for a moment when his stomach hit the table. The pain rushed through every nerve and he couldn't help but yelp like a beaten dog. _He felt so pathetic…_

His face hit the table, where he was lying on his thumping stomach, staring at the concrete wall in front of him. He had no idea what was going on behind him. Then he felt how his feet were being untied. _Why would he do that?_ When he felt two hands moving towards his waistband, it dawned on him.

He wasn't naïve. He knew what evil existed in the world. He had just never experienced it firsthand.

And this realization of what was about to happen was like a hammer to the head. That was the last straw. That was when his panic turned into hysteria. His lungs were already aching from hyperventilating, his heart was beating so fast in his chest that it felt as if it would jump out and through the table at any second. He bit his lip in utter desperation when he felt his pants sliding to the ground.

_Oh dear God! _

He has never been a religious type of person, but in this very moment, he would have done anything to prevent it from happening. Anything!

"Please!" Even begging. His voice sounded hoarse and way too high, but he didn't care.

"What was that?" There was a face next to his, cheek pressed against cheek, while a heavy body was pinning him to the table. "Did you say something?"

He swallowed. Not only his fear, but also his pride. "Pl-please don't do… that" he muttered.

"Do what?" came the reply and with that there was a new pain that made him cry out in shock and distress. The man leaned back a little and grabbed his hair brutally, while his other hand was basically glued to his rear. _Seriously. He did not want to think about what exactly that guy was doing. He has never been a fan of details!_

And even though it was very difficult to ignore the finger inside him, he gritted his teeth when the man turned his head forcefully around to look at him. Their eyes met. _Those icy blue eyes…_ he would definitely never forget those. _If he ever was to escape from this humiliating torture…_

"Say, kid" the man suddenly addressed him. "Do you have anything to say other than begging for your life like a pathetic little boy?"

He swallowed when the man's finger's movement made a wave of pain run through his nervous system. "Why… why are you doing this to me?"

"I was paid, kid" the man replied and abruptly let go of his hair which caused his head to fall onto the table with a smack. The pain epicenter moved for a moment. "You did something wrong to somebody and this somebody was not amused and asked me to get rid of you. And when that somebody pays the right amount of money, I will do anything. And when there's the bonus of beating up a pretty little boy like yourself, well, then I will also do it with a smile."

_What a sick bastard!_ He couldn't even describe the turmoil within him. He felt so many things at once, so many emotions, so much physical pain, so much confusion and fear and panic, it all led to the conclusion that this was the end. There was no escaping the hands of this crazy psycho killer.

Literally.

He gasped when he felt another wave of pain mixed with something else rush through him. The gasp turned into a dry cough when the man suddenly let go of him. Not without slapping his butt cheek brutally. _Oh please let this end soon…_

"So, kid" he heard his voice from a distance now. "Any more questions before we come to the fun part?"

"What did I do?" he whispered hoarsely, staring helplessly at the concrete wall behind the table. Even though his feet were untied now, he had absolutely no strength to move them. It wouldn't do anything anyway.

"What you did?" The man was standing behind him again. "Well, let's just say you pissed off the wrong person."

"But what exactly did I do?"

"You really don't remember?" There was an icy edge to the other man's voice. And something like a smirk. He also heard the rustling of clothes. "Maybe you'll remember when I pound some sense into you!"

It wasn't the wording that made him actually scream in anguish, it was the fulfillment of those words. In that moment he wished for another stab in the stomach, maybe some cuts or punches to the face or anything for that matter, anything but the excruciating pain and the pressure that seemed to rip his entire body apart. He had never felt this vulnerable, this helpless, this… pained. There were stars dancing in front of his vision, stars and absolute darkness and some spots of red. _Red like blood…_

He tried to bit his lip and just wait until it was over, but it wasn't. It kept going, _the man_ kept going, true to his words, so true to his words. _This bastard…_ The feeling was too intense to digest. It made him scream and moan and actually cry. He could feel hot tears streaming down his face, while he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to bury his face in the plain surface of the table. When he was about to pass out, _he was so close, so close to deliverance where it would all be over…_ he felt his hair being gripped forcefully. His head was lifted off the table and an arm sneaked around his chest and actually held him upright.

Then there was a face next to his. And a voice. Hissing into his ear. "Don't you dare faint on me, kid. That was not the plan!" The man's voice sounded rougher than before, very animalistic. And by the way he was moving his body against his, he felt like the wildest animal on the planet. And he, the victim, was the prey, not only cornered, but at the mercy of a crazy person. _Who wouldn't even allow him to faint._

This was hell. Absolute hell.

And he had no idea how he had gotten here.

Maybe it had been a mistake? Maybe the Chopper was hired to torture and kill someone else? Maybe he could still walk out of this, if he realized his mistake. _Really? Are you that naïve?_ _By the way, there won't be much _walking_ in the next hours or days anyway… Oh the images… As if feeling it wasn't enough. _But wasn't it worth a try? Didn't he have to try everything to get out of this hell? He couldn't just give in that easily! He wasn't a quitter, he never has been!

"Hey…" he groaned in between the loud moans of his violator. "Wait… please… just a…" The pain was never subsiding, it actually got worse the more movement was rippling through him. He kept crying out and he didn't care what noises the man made him do.

"What?" the man grumbled into his ear as he pulled his body into an almost standing position. _Oh dear God… it could get even worse…_ The stars were back, dancing nauseatingly in front of his inner eye.

The new position made speaking even harder than before. "Are… are you sure… that…"

Suddenly, the man stopped moving. The pain was still thumping through his body. And the pressure inside him was unbearable, even more so when it didn't move. He coughed.

"Speak up, kid!" the voice boomed into his ear.

He was still coughing when he felt a hand grabbing his jaw. There was pure anger on the other man's face. The eyes were mere slits, his eyebrows pulled together violently, and the growl was almost vibrating off his lips.

He looked up, feeling yet again like a helpless child. He probably looked like it too. "Are… are you sure you have the right one to get rid of?"

Suddenly the anger was gone and laughter replaced it. "Are you freaking serious, kid?"

He blinked.

"And you're asking this now?" The booming laughter echoed painfully in his ears. "You're some tough kid, honestly. But I have to disappoint you, unless you are not Tsutana Kichirou."

And with that, just like that, everything fell apart. And he couldn't even hide it. Misery washed over him, misery and fear and pain and despair. There was no turning back. His last hope collided onto him. Brutally. _He was done for._

"I've made my homework, kid." The man behind him laughed darkly, before he began moving again, stressing every word he said with a deep thrust that made Kichirou cry out every time. "Never, ever tell me that I made a mistake ever again!"

Slowly, he became numb. _It all ends today…_ He felt cold as the man pushed his torso back onto the table, as his hands gripped his hips brutally, as he kept pounding into him like he had said what felt like a very long time ago, as the movements got faster, as the pain turned into an unpleasant coldness, as he closed his eyes and waited.

He had no idea for how long this continued. He couldn't feel anything anymore.

When the man let out an animalistic groan, pushing one last time with full force into him, the darkness before his eyes turned into whiteness. His heart was racing inside his chest, while his lungs were yearning for air. And suddenly the pressure was gone. The pain remained. It echoed like a throbbing soreness through his body. He didn't even notice how he was pushed off the table and landed on his side. He couldn't feel anything but the throbbing pain…

_Why ain't I dead yet?_

Darkness fell. But it wasn't over.

Images flashed before his eyes, like lightning in a thunder storm. It was as if he was seeing his own body from a distance. Seeing the other man grabbing his hair, pulling him after him over the floor. He saw his naked self on the cold floor, beaten, hurt, violated, on the verge of death. He couldn't feel anymore.

Just witness what was happening to his motionless body. The man was back and he had a knife. Darkness washed over him like a cloud's shadow on a field. When the light came back, he saw the knife inside his stomach. Blood was trickling down his abdomen, gathering in a pile beneath him. The darkness came again, then the light, and another deep cut had hit him.

It kept on going. Darkness, light, blood. Darkness, light, blood.

He felt himself floating above the gruesome scene. Like a sakura petal. An awfully stained sakura petal that had been ripped into tiny little pieces.

_Please. Let me die now._

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><p><em><strong>AN**: Oh dear. First chapter starts with a major blow - oh excuse my language. I mean: Poor Kichirou. This is his trauma. And this trauma will shape the future events. It was necessary, I'm sorry. I suffered the most while writing this. _

_Let me ensure you: It will not continue like this! Let's see the first chapter as the tip of the mountain. You can only go down from there. _

_**NEXT: Tranquility.** (See, it's getting better! Just wait!)_


	3. Chapter 2: Tranquility

**OUT OF LUCK**

**The tale of Tsutana Kichirou**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Tranquility<strong>

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><p>Kichirou woke up slowly. There were no noises, just the rhythmic beating of his heart and the sound of his breath in his ears. It was so quiet, yet it didn't weigh down on him. This silence was so peaceful. He felt light, like floating.<p>

_Was he dead?_

Before he opened his eyes, he parted his lips, inhaling deeply through his mouth. The air tasted kind of sweet. _Maybe this was… heaven? Or a better place because there really was no heaven, at least not for him… so… Stop!_ His head hurt. Actually, now that he thought about it… his entire body hurt. Still there was a numbness hovering over him that kept the pain from driving him insane. It was… bearable. He inhaled again, before he opened his eyes.

The room around him was dimly lit. The ceiling had a wooden pattern to it and there was an oil lamp hanging from one corner. As he tried to turn his head to the side, a sudden jolt of pain rushed through his spine. He moaned quietly and looked back up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, there was a voice coming from the side of the bed he was lying on.

"Don't move too much." It sounded friendly, low and a bit husky, yet soft and warm. _Who was that?_

He moved his eyes around a bit, until a face appeared in his sight. Friendly brown eyes looked down at him, halfway covered by shaggy light brown hair. The face's features were lean and soft… it reminded him of that of an angel. A beautiful angel girl… He blinked. _Okay, now I finally lost it! There's no such thing as angels! And why am I even thinking like that? I must have hit my head very bad…_

A smile crept onto the girl's lips. He blinked again. "Am I dead?" he then asked, his voice nothing but a hoarse whisper. It actually hurt to speak. As if he had used his voice way too much in the past.

"Don't talk" the girl said in her low voice, yet kept smiling at him. She stretched out a hand and gently touched the side of his face. Her palm felt warm and soothing. "Don't strain yourself too much…"

He kept staring at her. _She didn't answer my question!_ Despite the deep throbbing, his head still felt really light. Maybe he was dead. Then again… how did he die? How did he end up like…

The memory hit him with full force.

For a moment he had forgotten about everything. But that moment had passed. And now he was back in the realization of what had happened to him. Why his body was hurting. Why he couldn't talk. A new wave of pain washed over him and the numbness was gone. He cried out when he flinched badly. One of his hands crept up to his chest. It was bandaged. The pain brought another emotion back to life: misery.

He swallowed dryly and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Shh" he then heard the girl's voice and felt her hand gently grabbing his. "It's alright now, you're safe."

_I'm… safe? Does she know what happened? Why does she know it? How? And where am I? And who was she anyways? And…_ He groaned when his headache hit another level. He was confused and hurting and in verge of tears. _And that in front of a cute girl!_ And apparently he still had some weird priorities. Trying to breathe evenly to fight the rising hysteria, he slowly opened his eyes again. The girl watched him with a serious expression on her lean features.

"Where am I?" Kichirou then asked, whispering so lowly he couldn't even understand himself.

"I'm not allowed to tell you that, yet" the girl replied. Apparently, she had better ears than him. "But you'll find out eventually."

He looked at her in confusion. "And who are you?"

She smiled. "I guess I can tell you at least that. I'm #2. Or you can call me Ni."

_#2?_ What kind of a name was that? And why couldn't she tell him where he was – yet? But the most prominent question that popped into his head was something entirely else.

How did he survive?

Remembering the torture and pain and the words of his tormentor about killing him… how was it even possible that he was here now, breathing, talking to this girl he had never seen before? What happened?

"What happened?" he then articulated, hoping to get an answer this time. He looked up into the girl's face pleadingly.

She tilted her head and sat down on the edge of his bed, facing him. She had a really slim body, lean and with long, slender limbs, a bit boyish even, and she was wearing what looked like a uniform of some sort. He couldn't really tell. Her hand grabbed his and while she spoke, she turned it palm up between her fingers and looked at it thoughtfully.

"I'm not allowed to tell you" she replied quietly.

What was all this secrecy about? He stared at her, exhaling loudly. "Please… I just want to know how I got here…"

She faced him. "The Old Man found you" she then whispered, as if she was afraid someone might overhear what she was telling him. Kichirou pulled his eyebrows together in confusion. _The Old Man? Who was that now?_ "You were in a horrible condition. It's a miracle that he was able to fix you up so quickly."

_So quickly?_ "For how long have I been here?"

The girl tilted her head. Strands of her hair kept falling into her eyes, but she didn't mind. "Two weeks" she replied, watching him closely.

_Two weeks?_ That's not what he considered quickly. "But… why did this… Old Man bring me here… wherever _here_ is?"

As she was still holding his hand, she looked down at it and squeezed it lightly. "Because you have potential" was her reply.

He blinked. _Potential?_ "What?"

Suddenly there was distant sound of a bell ringing. The girl basically flinched, before she turned her head towards the door of the room. He heard her inhale sharply. When she looked back at him, she was smiling again.

"He'll tell you everything eventually" she said while standing up. "Until then, please rest."

He watched her let go of his hand and walk towards the door. There she hesitated for a moment, before turning back to him.

"I'm glad you woke up, Kichirou" she said with a kind smile, before leaving the room.

He couldn't help but stare after her. _She knew my name? And she knew what happened to me. What else does she know? And why?_ Many questions rushed through his groggy brain. Yet confusion was only one part of things that caused him pain.

When he looked back up at the ceiling, he couldn't help but ask himself why he was still alive. Two weeks ago he had begged for it all to end and he had accepted the possibility that his short life might have been over. He had not once hoped to survive. Enduring all that physical pain and psychological trauma definitely had made him forget all about the possibility that he might actually live to tell the tale.

A tale he actually never wanted to talk about ever again.

Even now, he couldn't think about it. It hurt too much. Not only the violation and wounds, but the thought of having been helpless and at the mercy of someone. Yeah, that probably hurt worse than the cuts and bruises. He had never been one to follow anybody's lead. He had always been on his own, caring only for himself. And somehow he had lived that kind of life for sixteen years and never once got into trouble. Maybe Karma was a bitch and all his behavior until then had to lead up to what had happened to him.

Yes, Karma liked to fuck with people. In the most literal sense there was.

He inhaled sharply at that and closed his eyes. Misery came back. As did the numbness. He decided to follow the girl's advise and try to rest. He sure hoped he wouldn't dream too bad.

Of course luck was not on his side.

He woke up to the sound of his voice echoing shrilly in his ears. His heart was beating so fast, it might have actually been able to jump out of his chest at any second. Yet it couldn't, as he saw when he jerked his eyes open. He was held by two arms. Panting heavily, he tried to figure out where he was.

The same room, the same bed, on which he was sitting upright, the same oil lamp lazily swaying from the ceiling, and… the same hands that had held his before. He turned his head a bit and noticed the girl sitting on the edge of his bed behind him, holding him firmly in her grip. She was pretty strong, he couldn't move at all. _And he was thankful for that._ Being held like that certainly calmed him down greatly. He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly and after a moment, he was breathing evenly again.

The girl slowly let go of him and pushed him back onto his back. He closed his eyes in embarrassment. And felt a hand grabbing his.

"It's alright now" he heard her soft, low voice close to him. "It's over, remember? You're safe now."

He swallowed dryly and couldn't make himself open his eyes to look at her. His pride and dignity were still too scratched. Vulnerability had still not left his body and mind. And he hated it. He hated being in this state. _Oh, welcome back misery…_

"Kichirou." Another voice made him jerk his eyes open in surprise. It sounded deep and old and strict and it urged him to pull himself together.

He looked up to see an old man. A tall, broad-shouldered old man, who stared down at him with tiny dark eyes. He had a face full of wrinkles, framed by short silver hair. Was this the Old Man the girl had been talking about?

"Ni told me you woke up earlier" he said, nodding at the girl next to him, who had let go of his hand and was now standing a little timid looking beside the old man. "How are you feeling?"

He blinked. _Seriously?_ He felt like shit. "I'm fine" he replied instead.

"Really? No more pain?"

_Old man, don't play with me! Do I look as if I didn't have any more pain?_ "Actually…"

"Well, suck it up!" the Old Man told him very directly, basically making his jaw drop in surprise. "When I picked you up, you were in a worse condition. You had seven deep cuts in your stomach, two broken ribs, a disjointed shoulder, several other bone fractures and multiple bruises, scratches and other wounds all over your body. You had lost an extreme amount of blood. You were a mess, son. But I fixed you up. All the pain you might be feeling is only in your head."

He stared at the other man in confusion. "What?"

"Believe me, Kichirou, pain is an illusion. It's not real unless you expect it to be real." What was this guy talking about? "I know you're probably wondering what I'm talking about…" _Oh my God, he could read minds! _And… was that a smile on his wrinkly lips? "You will understand all of this soon enough. For now I welcome you to the Herd."

_The Herd?_ What the hell was that now? Who were those people? And why was he here?

"I'll answer all of your questions once you left the infirmary. Until then I leave you in Ni's care" the Old Man said, nodded again towards the girl, who bowed her head a little. He then gave Kichirou one last long look, before turning around and leaving the room again.

Staring after him, he didn't even realize that Ni sat down on his bed.

"So… that was the Old Man, huh?" he said quietly.

The girl only nodded.

"He's… weird."

A clear, soft laugh hit his ears. He turned his head to see the girl grinning at him. "He is" she replied in a low whisper. "But don't tell him I said that!"

Kichirou couldn't help it. The corners of his mouth twitched lightly. That made the girl smile even wider. She looked so kind and warm. It took him a while to realize that he was staring at her. Before that he had studied her features very closely. The way her hair, untypically short for a girl in his opinion, fell into her eyes and got caught in her lashes. How the light of the oil lamp reflected in her brown pupils. She also had high, delicately chiseled cheekbones that indeed made her look like an angel. He blinked when he noticed the smirk she was throwing him.

Clearing his throat, he looked away quickly. _Awkward…_

"Can you sit up for me?" he heard her say after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Huh?" He turned his head towards her and noticed that she had placed a bowl of water and some fresh bandages next to the bed.

She motioned him to sit up. "I need to change your bandages" she said in the most neutral tone he had ever heard.

He sat up slowly, but continued looking at her in confusion. Actually, he was a bit embarrassed to be taken care of by a girl he began to develop a liking for. And that was even more embarrassing. How was it even possible for him to feel like that after such a short amount of time? _Oh, right, teenage hormones._

"Don't be shy, I have done this for the last two weeks, you know?"

Kichirou blinked. _She… what?_ He looked at her a bit perplexed. But she simply smiled at him and began undoing the bandages around his torso. He inhaled and watched her. When she was done removing his bindings, he took a look down his stomach. The sight was horrible. Even though it didn't really hurt that much anymore, it looked just terrible. There were seven two-inch-long pink lines all across his abdomen.

He hated having scars.

They kept reminding him of the things he had done wrong in life. Of his failures. And having been captured by a crazy psycho killer definitely was one of the greatest failures of his life. He sighed and shook his head, before he noticed that the girl was watching him. She was kneeling on a stool beside his bed with a wet sponge in her hand.

"Don't worry, they won't stay like this. Even scars fade a little after time." Her voice was soft, but its warmth couldn't reach the cold inside his heart.

He swallowed and looked down again. He heard how she put the sponge back into the bowl of water. Then there was the rustling of clothes. Kichirou hesitated to look up. When he did, he saw that the girl had pushed the sleeve of her sweater over her elbow. She then stretched out her arm and held it palm-up. There was a very long, very thin white line running all the way from her wrist towards the inside of the crook of her arm.

"When I was seven, a man wanted to sell my blood on the black market. He slashed me up badly. I have these scars on both arms and legs. I did lose a lot of blood, but as you can see, I survived." She smiled at him while rolling her sleeve down again. "I survived and today, these scars remind me of how I got here."

He watched her closely, unable to say anything about this sudden confession. He didn't even know this girl and she still felt like someone close to him. _Someone trustworthy, who would share the horrors of her life with him…_

"Maybe someday, those scars of yours…" she said, as she picked up the sponge and gently pressed it against his stomach. "…will not remind you of the things that happened to you, but of the fact that you survived them and that you had the chance to start a whole new life."

While considering what she was telling him, he followed the movements of her slender hands. How she washed his abdomen and chest. He didn't even feel the warm water on his skin. All he could feel were her light touches. _The chance to start a whole new life? Really?_ As of this moment, he couldn't understand those words. Yet there was a tiny voice in the back of his head that agreed to what she had said. _This _is_ a chance…_

"Say, um, Ni?" he then asked, when she wringed the sponge over the water bowl.

She looked up. "Yes?"

"What is the Herd?"

While continuing to wash his skin, she replied: "I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Why not? There's no one here! No one can hear you! Why doesn't anybody tell me what's going on here? Please, I…"

"Shh!" she hissed, while pressing the sponge against his back, leaning around his shoulder to look at him. "Don't talk so loud!"

"Why not?" he countered, turning his head towards her. "Why are you being so secretive about everything?"

"Kichirou!" The sudden change of undertone in her voice almost hurt his ears. She sounded so strict. He blinked when she leaned around him and placed a hand against his ribcage. "Please don't be like that. We need your cooperation." She underlined her words by slightly pressing against his ribs.

Kichirou hissed in pain and quickly leaned away from her touch. "Who are you people? Why do you need my cooperation? For what? And what if I don't cooperate? What will you do?"

The girl named Ni leaned back on her knees and stared at him out of slitted eyes. Her angelic face looked quite sinister in the swaying light of the oil lamp now. He immediately regretted having raised his voice like that.

"I… I just want to know where I'm at and what I'm doing here" he then tried a softer tone, while looking at her pleadingly. "Please, you have to understand this. I… I woke up in this strange place at the mercy of strange people I have never seen before in my life… Do you really think I wouldn't ask questions? That I wouldn't be confused?"

Ni tilted her head, her features relaxing slowly. She then stood up from her kneeling position, dropped the sponge in the water bowl and walked towards the door.

"Wait, don't leave!" Kichirou called after her, but realized in the same moment that she wasn't about to leave. She was just checking the door.

"Listen" she then said, when she turned around to him. "I know you must be confused, I was too when I woke up in here eleven years ago. But compared to you, I didn't fight being here. Believe me, there is no one here who will do you any harm. We're on your side."

"But who are you?"

The girl was shaking her head, while walking back towards his bed. "I told you, I'm not…"

"…allowed to tell me, I know!" he finished for her in utter frustration.

"I'm sorry, Kichirou" she replied, leaning against the foot of his bed. "But you will find out everything in time. You'll see."

He watched her for a moment, before he gave in. _Fine. She won't tell me anything anyways._ Not that he wasn't curious. "So you've been here for eleven years?" he asked, when she walked around the bed to pick up the sponge again.

"Yes, I've been living with the Old Man ever since. He gave me the name #2."

While she was washing his back (at which he winced whenever the sponge hit his skin), he tried to make at least some sense of what she had said to him. Because despite her saying she wasn't allowed to tell him anything, there has already been a lot she had told him so far. "I assume there are more than you and the Old Man, right? If you're #2, there has to be a #3 and #4 as well, right? Am I also a number?"

She dropped the sponge into the water bowl and pinched his arm. "You are nosy, you know that?" He looked around at her and blinked. She smirked at him. "But yes, there are more, and no, you don't have a number yet."

"_Yet_, I see. So someday I'll be a number as well?" He watched her. "Come on, just tell me. I can be very…"

"…annoying? Yes, you can." She grabbed a towel lying over the edge of the stool and began drying his wet skin. He winced as she touched his ribs. "I'm sorry, your ribs are taking a little longer to heal. Everything else is recovering just fine, I have to say. That's good."

_How smoothly she had changed the topic!_ Kichirou exhaled loudly.

The girl paused for a moment and looked at him. "I know that you have many questions. But I'm not the one to answer them. So, please, stop nagging me about that and just relax a little, okay? It's not healthy to question everything, you know?"

"But…"

"No!"

"Fine…"

She threw him a smile and continued drying his chest. After that she proceeded to put new bandages around his torso. He watched her closely all the while. She didn't even once look at him strangely. Maybe she was used to being stared at. _What a weird girl…_ She was just knotting the loose ends of the bandages together, when the door of the room was being opened.

They both looked up at the same time. A tall boy entered the room, holding what looked like clothes in his hands.

"The Old Man told me to bring you these, Ni-san" the boy said and handed the girl the clothes.

"Thanks, Shichi-kun" she replied with a smile. The boy nodded and turned to leave again without once looking at Kichirou.

The door fell into its place. "Was that #7?"

"You're clever" Ni replied. "Yes, that was #7."

"But why was he calling you _Nii-san*_?"

"Because that's my name?" She didn't pay him much attention as she was busy unfolding the clothes.

"Yes, but…"

"Kichirou, what did we just talk about?" she then said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"No more questions" he replied, exhaling while he did so.

"Good boy" she laughed and handed him a sweater. "Here, put this on."

He grabbed it and turned it around in his hands. Then he looked up at her and noticed the same sweater on her. It was black and had a grey symbol on each sleeve. It looked like an H or an X made out of the tips of two arrows pointing at each other. Or two triangles. Or maybe something entirely else. _Who cares anyway…? _

Kichirou slipped into the sweater. He wanted to do that very casually, but when he lifted his arms, a sharp pain rushed through his ribcage. He then felt Ni's hands on his chest, trying to help him. His cheeks reddened. He knew it and hoped she wouldn't notice. At least she didn't say anything. When he was done, she handed him a pair of simple, black pants.

"Let's see if you can dress yourself this time" she said with a warm smile. That remark could have been a mean one, but due to her soft voice and the smile he forgot all about it. She then took a step away from the bed and turned around. "I won't look."

He was a little confused about her comment, but when he wanted to move his legs, he realized that he was naked, if it wasn't for the blanket covering the bottom half of his body. Grabbing the blanket, he then slowly moved his legs over the edge of the bed. He flinched badly when his feet met the cold wooden floor. A wave of numbness hit him, followed by the feeling of pins and needles running from his feet all up to his thighs. He then remembered that he must have been lying on his back for the last two weeks. Not once moving his legs.

Still sitting on the edge of the bed, he tried in a very uncomfortable and circumstantial fashion to pull the pants over his legs. All that time, Ni remained standing with her back to him, patiently waiting. _Or she was laughing into herself at how clumsy he was._ Either way, when he was done dressing, he fell back onto the bed with a sigh, glad she didn't have to see him struggle this much.

"Are you done?" she asked quietly.

"Yes" he breathed, wriggling his toes to stop the tingling in his limbs.

Ni turned around and threw him a smile. "It'll get easier once your wounds have healed completely, don't worry." He rolled his eyes. "On a positive note, you look much livelier than before. That's a good thing."

He exhaled loudly, when she motioned him to stand again. As he couldn't feel his feet very much, he grabbed the bed in support, before she could get the idea to hold him up. He didn't need that! His ego was scratched enough already. _I'm a man, damn it! I have to act like one! _He raised a hand to push his hair out of his eyes. As he was standing next to Ni, he noticed how fragile she was looking, even though she was two years older. Yet she wasn't as tiny as he had thought. She was only a few inches smaller than him. Again he was mesmerized by her appearance. _He was really wondering what was wrong with him…_

"Alright" she interrupted his thoughts. "Looks like you can stand again. Your progress is amazing. Two days ago you weren't even conscious." She smiled up at him. "How about we talk a little walk and get you something to eat. Are you hungry?"

Actually, he wasn't. But taking a walk with Ni sounded like a good idea.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:** Chapter 2: Introducing a new character named Ni! (Also: Yay, Kichirou lives!...of course!)_

_And then there's an Old Man and something called The Herd. You'll get more information about that in upcoming chapters!_

_By the way (*):_

_"Nii-san" means "Brother", while "Ni-san" is just a polite way of saying Ni's name. Kichirou gets confused because both sound the same. I think you get it, don't you?_

**_NEXT: More about the Herd!_**


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